Ethiopia: Over 400,000 IDPs return home

By Addis Getachew

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AA) - Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians driven away from their villages due to ethnic conflicts have returned home, country's disaster management authority said Wednesday.

More than 400,000 internally displaced people from the Somali and Oromia states are now back in their lands in Moyale, Borena, Gujji, and Bale as well as in the East and West Hararghe zones in Oromia, state-run Ethiopian News Agency quoted Mekonnen Lenjessa, the head of the Oromia Disaster Risk and Management Commission, as saying.

Lenjessa said peace and stability in the troubled areas across the border between the Somali and Oromia states have been restored.

Clashes between Oromo and Somali militia began in December 2016 following territorial disputes, resulting in the deaths of thousands of people. Nearly three million have been displaced from their homes.